5 Weight Carpin'

Awoke this morning to misty gloomy conditions. Knowing full well that sight casting will be tough, I decided to make things even tougher by using my Sage XP 5 weight that I built. Since buying my T&T Helix SW 5 weight, the Sage has been benched and has seen very little playing time. I decided to rectify that today. Armed with the Abel Pt 5, it was time to give this combo some time on the water.

Although I saw many fish, casting to them was tough as windows of opportunities were short. Once I saw the fish cruising, it would swim into the deeper or darker waters and made them hard to follow. It took me some time to get the rhythm of the XP. I had to remind myself to slow down my casts, as I was used to the faster action of my Scott S3S 7 weight.

In time I finally hooked one feeding in the shallows. I wasn't quite sure it took the fly until it erupted and bolted. Unfortunately my Abel is an older model so it as no outgoing click (which I absolutely hate) so no reel music when the fish had its three runs. When I landed it I took a pic next to my rod so I could better judge its size. Forgetting I was carrying my boga grip and never weighed him. Only after he swam away did I realize my mistake.

By noon I decided to call it a day.

This is the second smallest carp I've taken here, the smallest being my very first carp. Still it was quite a blast on the 5 weight.

Just like the first carp I caught here, this fish also has some injuries. No clue what would cause this.

This guy is pretty battle scarred. Do carp fight one another? If they do this guy will live another day to duke it out with another.

When I started fishing here I wore bootfoot waders, I finally realized that's completely unnecessary as all cast can be made on shore. No more sweating balls in gore-tex. Thank god.

Articulated Super Sexy Fly (ASS Fly)

Hook: Gamakatsu SL11-3H Size 6
Eye: Cross-eyed Conehead
Thread: Danville Flat Nylon White, Red
Tail: Chartruese Marabou
Body: Estaz
Underbody: 3MM Foam (Optional)
Connector: Heavy Mono
Color: Waterproof Marker Dark Olive

I came up with this fly from my articulated fly phase. At that time I was trying to fool bedding bass at our local city park lakes. I wanted to create a fly with alot of action and one that mimics the action of a crankbait. That is a fly that has its head pointing downward and the butt upward while wiggling as it moves. When I first tried this fly at Barrett Lake on Saturday I saw how irresistible this fly really is, I remarked to my friend Ed, "look how sexy that fly moves." And hence the name.

I dremel of the barbs of the hooks as Barrett has very strict barbless policy. Also doing so makes it possible to use the conehead. Although I created this fly for bass, I'll be using them in the bay this year when the water begins to warm up.

Tailer hook. Tie marabou tail with the white danville flat nylon.

Next cut a piece of foam making sure it is shorter than the shank of the hook. Tie the one end first and tie estaz. (*EDIT* actually leave the foam out, I find the action much better without it)

Wrap thread forward under the foam, do not wrapped the middle section of the foam. If you do so the foam will lose its buoyancy properties. Tie down the front section of the foam.

Wrap the estaz forward. Wrap finish the head and cement. Remove from vice.

Place the conehead to the lead hook and lay down a base thread with the red Danville Floss.

Tie down the heavy mono.

Place the trailing hook in the mono making sure that the hook stands true. Tie the mono forward and then back over itself to add strength and tie down.

Tie on estaz and wrap forward.

Tie down the estaz with a lot of wraps. You want to build enough so that the conehead will not move so the eyes stay in place. Wrap finish and cement.

Last step is to use a waterproof color marker on the the top half of the each section of the fly.

Four Takes, One Broken Tippet, Two Landed, One Unglued

My intention was to fish yesterday morning but the Lake Barrett trip the day before just took too much out of me to motivate myself to hitting the water. Last night I thought I might have regretted that decision as Sunday was a perfect breezeless day. Also by 9pm we had a light misty rain that may have affected the fishing today. My fears proved unwarranted.



The carpin' was amazing today. I hooked up on four landing two losing two. The first fish was huge. Making a long cast to the other side of the river, I hooked a big angry runner. He pulled drag making three blistering runs. On the third I got alittle too zealous and yanked and reeled while he was making a dash. That stupid move cost me the fish as the tippet of trailing hare's ear broke off.



I made it to another area and casted to a lone feeder. Fish on! A bit of comedy ensued. I strip set my carp and once he runs I point my rod at him and let him run a few yards before I lift the rod. In doing so, the rod disassembled at the second and third section. I had to try and fight the fish with half a rod. Thankfully these carp only run when they feel pressure and let up when it gets slack. Managing to reattach my rod I continued the fight but for some reason I could not reel any line in. Perplexed I looked a the rod, and in assembling the rod the line had wrapped around the guide essentially creating a brake. Quickly I disassembled the rod, cleared the line and put it back together. I thought the fish had been lost but no he was still on! Having no intention on losing another, I cautiously fought the fish. Eventually landing him. This time the fish took the legless aggravator, my go-to fly.



In time I found a pod of 4 or 5 rummaging around. Making at least 30 casts, I finally hooked up on the largest in the group. I was within a forest of cattails and had to fight the fish while trying to get out to the clearings by lifting the rod high, hoping the line would not clip the high cattails. Making it without losing the fish, I finally landed it. I really should bring my boga, I always forget. Its hard to judge weight when you have nothing to go by.



The wind had really picked up by now so I decided to head back to the truck when I suddenly saw a lone feeder near the bank. Casting to him on the second try, he took. I fought him but on his third run the fly flew back toward me. After that I had enough and left for lunch.

Fly Fishing Barrett Lake Continues to Impress

Barrett Lake continues to please. Ed and I made what is starting to become an annual trip to this fishery. We've been excited by recent reports of 100 fish per angler days by gear fishermen. Although we knew fly fishing numbers were most likely not going to reach that high, both of us knew we were likely to get into some respectable numbers. We were right between the two of us we landed at least 70.
Since Barrett has some unique entrance requirements, getting here can be brutal for anyone not living in San Diego County. Ed made it to my house before 10pm last night. We made our two hour drive and made it to the gate just after midnight. We slept in my LR3 until the gate opened at 5am. Outside temperatures according to the temp gauge went below 35 degrees. Managing a few hours of sleep we patiently waited until we could fish.
Before 5am, the gatekeeper checked us in and let us through the gate. Once we set up our boat, we set off to a point just at the opening of the Hauser arm. Dahlberg Driver was Ed's first choice. I would start of with a Mega Clouser in blugill colors. On Ed's first cast a largemouth blew up on his fly once it landed and proceeded to miss the strike. He would eventually landed at least 4 largemouthes here on topwater. Seeing Ed with some sucess I abandoned the big fly and moved onto my 6 weight loaded with Webb's popper fly. As the sun was starting to come up, the topwater bite slowed down. As always it seems, Ed starts off with a huge lead. He must have had 5 or 6 fish before my first take. I moved on to the Thomas and Thomas Helix 5 weight SW, my favorite rod, loaded with 150 gr line. Pretied with an Articulated Super Sexy Fly (ASSF). This new fly proved its worth. I lost the first fish just at the boat but it produced at least eight or ten before I lost it in the submerged matter. I moved on to the Barret Shad fly. That fly continued to produce numbers as well until I lost it.
Ed was producing some serious numbers as well but ran into some bad luck. His Airflo 200 gr line ripped when he was trying to extricate his fly from the branches. He began fishing his 6 weight floating line with a long leader and a purple wooly bugger. Although he had success, he definitely was limited in where and what he could fish. Its both our opinion that he'd had much greater numbers if he'd had his 6 weight sinking line with him all day. He did fish for sometime his 300 gr 8 weight but gave that up as he, as with I, doesn't much care for bigger rods unless its really called for such as the blue waters.
My top flies were in order of most fish caught: ASSF, Formal Jig Hook Clouser with Propeller, Barrett Shad, Floating Tail Bunny Leech, Bluegill Clouser. Also I did catch one LMB with a size 12 Enrico Puglisi's Bluegill until I lost it in the submerged structure. The largest fish of the day was 2.5lbs taken on Propeller clouser. The second, a 2 lber, was taken on the ASSF. All fish for the were decent sized, no dinks in the bunch for either of us. The several crappies also were of good to better than average size.
None of the Big Flies produced, not so much as a bump. Even for Ed who had slightly smaller but nonetheless large flies failed to tempt a fish to take. I had several SDR (short distance releases) most were just a few feet from the boat. I was at least able to see most if not all of them. Some including my first crappie were of very good size.
We did not keep track of all our fish but we had at least 35 a piece. I do not recall Ed catching anything but LMB. I, on the other hand, had at least 5 crappie, losing several that I did not count as catches along with several LMB as well. We had quit fishing so we could make the first train out at 2pm. Our intention was to stay until 3 but the wind began to howl quite hard, effectively putting the fly rodding to an end. This has been the best I've experienced Barrett. It appears that Barrett is back to its old self which is nice. I hope to make it out again this year but that seems unlikely for now. If I do make it out there it will be most likely next month or the following during the African hot days of summer. Those days are not very pleasant.

Ed with the first fish of the day. Taken on a Dalhberg Diver.

More fish taken on the Driver just before the sun came out.

My first bass on the Articulated Super Sexy Fly.

Articulated Super Sexy Fly (ASSF) takes a two pounder.

ASSF strikes again.

This crappie was taken on a blugill clouser.

Jig Hook Clouser with propeller was the top fly of the day for me.

Two and half pounder on a propeller formal jig clouser in chartreuse.

One of many crappie of the day on a Barrett Shad Fly.

One fly I forgot to try, since Ed was having so much success with the Dahlberg Diver early, was my Lazy Man's Driver. I even tied one with a rattle. I shall remember to try it next time.

Finally!!!

"All good things come to those who wait." If you had told me that days ago or even earlier this morning, I would have probably punched you in the crotch or at least told you to F-Off. But I guess that old saying has alot of truth to it.

I awoke around 7am today and let the dog out to piss. Originally I did not feel much in the mood to go out and attempt another try at carp. I've been just too frustrated lately. After all I'll be fishing one of the best bass fisheries in all of California tomorrow. But since there was absolutely no wind today I thought what the hell.

Once I hit the water, I saw two carp feeding together only a few yards from me. I threw out a cast and promptly plopped the fly right in front of them with a big splash. Spooked, the fish bolted. Great I thought way to F-up that great chance. Much of the day went as such. Several of the first few fish I saw I was getting way too impatient or too cute with my casts. I'd either splash the fly too hard, hit them in the head with the fly or line, or just throw a tailing loop. If it weren't any of these I'd hook my backcast in the cattails every 10 casts. In my mind I was cussing up and down the river. I kept my line in the water and walk up the river. When I retrieved my line, I noticed a bass fry on the trailing San Juan worm . Well I thought at least I'm not skunked for the day.

It seemed that every carp I saw and I saw many, that I'd screw up somehow. Then I saw a lone fish while I was in forest of cattails. I had to cast high, so not to hook up behind me and shoot the line out. Landing in front of the carp, the fly was presented perfectly. It took, I strip set it and ripped the fly of of its mouth. Perfect, just my luck. At this point I was alittle pissed off, alittle meaning alot. I moved up the river and much of the same. eventually I noticed that I had a wind knot. So I changed my leader. All I had was a 9ft 0x, I had for years. Tying it on , I decided to forgo the trailing fly as I'd been casting like an asshole all day. Better keep it simple.

I saw several more fish and I'd make a perfect cast but none would ever take. So for every cast, I'd wonder if the leader was too heavy and being seen by the fish. Since I had no other leaders but 5x, I'd just have to make do. I eventually found a loose group of three and casted at least 30 time before one decided to take. Seeing the fish flare its gills but not feeling any resistance, I wondered if I should set the hook harder. The dilemma was if the carp had not taken the fly I'd spook him off, I set it anyway and sure enough it took. It bulldogged me for a while and I thought perhaps I'd hooked a bass. I reeled the slack line and then it decided to make some runs. In time I landed him and finally accomplished catching my first carp. Unlike Hemingway's Santiago, it did not take my 84 days to get my fish. Thank god. As most people don't care for carp, I decided to keep the carp, I normally do not. Its been at least 15 years since I'd kept a fish. I will use it for practicing Gyotaku.

Although the remaining fish had not spooked I decided to head home and end it on a high note.

Some New Flies For Barrett Lake

Two more days until Ed and I hit Barrett Lake for the first time this year. According to recent reports, gear fishermen are having 100 fish days. It sounds like Barrett is back. Although lately much of my attention has been on carp, I've been spending alot of time at the vice tying new flies for bass. This year I'm trying something different, I'm going BIG. Most of the flies are much larger than I usually fish. I'll be bringing my 9 weight so casting them shouldn't be much of a problem.

These shad flies were actually tied several years ago but I never gave them a real good chance. Originally I had tied it with Icelandic Sheep as the wing. But since I didn't like how unruly sheep can be I cut them off and replace it wth SF blend topped with angel hair. The big eye version has a large rattle.

These articulated shad patterns were my attempt to mimic a crankbait action. The trailing hook is first wrapped in foam before wrapped in estaz so it will ride above the front hook as it dives tbeacuse it has a conehead. I've not tried it yet some I'm not sure if this theory actually works.

I've had these Marc Petitjean Magic Heads in my drawer for a long time and I decided it time to give them a try.

This is another articulated fly with the trailing hook is wrapped in foam before wrapped in mohair.

This leach pattern is nothing new but I did make one addition. As you can see in the photo, the end section of the tail I've glued a small piece of foam so that the tail floats up and undulates. This ideal is not mine I got it from one of Conway Bowman's friends who invented a much more elaborate fly. I liked the ideal for a stationary fly that still entices bass. Such a fly, I would guess, be and amazing fly during the spawn and placing it on the bed and let it sit. I'll have to try that theory next year's spawn.

This is my version of Enrico Puglisi's bluegill fly. I used SF Blend instead of EP's fibers.

This is nothing new, a clouser with a propeller. I tied it big and on a jig hook.

Mega Big Eyed Clousers on 1/0 TMC 800 hooks. These are six to seven inches long and I added weed guards on some so I can throw them in some really nasty stuff. Tied in bluegill colors, olive/white, purple/white, orange/white, and chartreuse/white. These will becoming with me to Newport Bay this year.

A comparison with a clouser I normally fish for bass and at local bays.

More Bad Luck, Two Takes, Two Unglued

Waking up early this morning, I noticed that the air was absolutely still. No breeze at all. After letting the dog out to do his business, I drove to the river. Water was completely glass-like. Not long after reaching the water I was on one small carp near the bank. Without looking behind me I casted hooking up on some tulies behind me. Oh Brother, I thought to myself. Having lost track of the fish while retrieving my fly, I moved on. Within a few yards I found another fish, even larger than the previous. This carp was in the shallows heading toward a deeper pocket so I casted A few feet in front of it into the deep water. I couldn't see him but I slowly stripped line and felt him tug and tug again. Having messed up on all my previous takes (I had set my hook with trout sets, I strip set this one. In doing so I strip set the fly out of its mouth. Crap!!! I just can't get a break.

Moved on, and again within a few yards I noticed more fish. These were tailing. I was in a forest of cattails so there was no way to cast. So I repositioned myself by entering the water slowly and carefully. After several casts there were no takers. I felt that the my trailing fly (a Filo Fly) had not enticed any fish so I decided to try something new. Going through my fly box I decided to tie a yellow glo-bug. While trying to get the fly on the line two carp feed so close to me that I could literally touch them with my rod. Those fish stuck around so when I finally had the fly on I casted to one of them. In time I had him take but I was not quite sure as he was moving directly toward me. I saw him shake few times and I strip set the hook again to make sure he was on, sure enough he was. I got the line tight, he jumped and shook his head like a bass and the line flew limp. I checked the leader and it had broke again at fly. Unbelievable. This is getting absurd.

I saw a few more fish later but I'd screw those up eventually with bad casts. Man, I am Santiago from Old Man and the Sea. Hopefully all this pain will pay dividends this weekend at a Barrett Lake. This bad luck better not follow me there.

Wind Picks Up Right When I Get There

While driving to the water, there was absolutely no wind. It looked as if it was going to be a perfect day for sight casting. Once I arrived and saw the first carp from an elevated position, I made my way down toward him. Just when I made it to the river the wind began to pick up making spotting fish nearly impossible. I stayed just under a hour before giving up. With the exception of one carp, the few fish I did see basically spooked long before I could make a decent cast.